Are you Afraid of the Dark?
by LMB
Summary: A demon attacks Buffy in Sunnydale, and Angel in LA, forcing them to work together. What will happen when theyre reunited? A B/A fic.
1. Chapter 1

Buffy stepped out of the hall of residence into the sunshine and shielded her eyes as she went out into the early morning sun.  
  
She started to walk across the lawn to where she was going to meet Giles before her English Class. She strolled towards the large Oak that sprawled out in front of Stevenson Hall and, realising that Giles was not only there, but had probably been waiting at least 15 minutes (being 10 minutes later than she'd said anyway) she ran over quickly.  
  
"Buffy, next time you want to ask me something, please tell me to arrive half an hour later than you plan to get here." Giles challenged, removing his glasses and rubbing his forehead.  
  
"Oh c'mon Giles, I was working on my history assignment…" Buffy said, putting on her most innocent face.  
  
"Really" Giles asked, sounding surprised.  
  
"Well, no, but I was thinking about it" Buffy replied. Giles looked mildly annoyed, but Buffy flashed a grin and he immediately relaxed.  
  
"What was it you wanted me to help you with? You said something a dream you had where someone was in danger?"  
  
Buffy's facial expression to changed to one which suggested she was having difficulty in swallowing.  
  
"Yeah. Someone was in this weird coloured pool, and I couldn't do anything about it, and I was really straining to help - I'm not sure why, Giles, but it really wigged me out, it made me feel completely powerless against whatever was doing that…"  
  
"Well, I can't say that it sends any alarm bells off, but I'll look in to it."  
  
"Thanks Giles," Buffy said, glad that she had now passed that on to him, "and now I really DO have to get to class"  
  
"Yes Buffy," Giles replied, "enjoy the coffee house…"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Giles sat down in his kitchen with a cup of tea. He frowned as he thought about what Buffy had told him. He pondered a second, trying to bring back any demons that he had ever heard of that could immobilise a person. He couldn't think of one at all, which was odd after so many years as a watcher. Well, he wouldn't start from there then. Buffy had told him that the pool had been 'green and kinda glowy' so he decided to do his best in researching Buffy's usual vagueness. He picked up his tea and took a sip, immediately pouring the rest of it down the sink. "They don't make tea like they do in England…"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Buffy walked into her Calculus class and spotted Willow sitting in a desk by the window and immediately walked over and slid into the seat next to her.  
  
"Hey Will, how's it going?"  
  
"Fine, I guess. Where were you before class?" Willow asked.  
  
"Oh, just telling Giles about the dream." Buffy said, with an attempt at casualness.  
  
"You mean the one about –" Willow was interrupted  
  
"Shhh! Careful, Riley's over there. He tends to get a little over concerned when anything like this happens. It's sweet, but I don't need it at the moment. But yeah. He didn't exactly look to thrilled when I told him. He's gonna look into it for me. It really freaked me out y'know Will." Buffy finished as Riley walked over.  
  
"Hey Buffy, Willow," He said, bending down to kiss Buffy on the cheek, "I can't stay for long, gotta get to my English class, just wanted to say that I'll meet you this evening outside Lowell, Okay?"  
  
"Sure, I'll see you then." Said Buffy as Riley turned round to leave.  
  
Just as Buffy was going to continue telling Willow about her dream, and Giles' reaction, Mr. Beckett, Buffy's Calculus professor, entered the room. Buffy turned round, positioning herself to make it look as if she was staring at the board and immediately started to drift off to sleep. 


	2. Chapter 2

When she opened her eyes again, Buffy was surrounded by a blue light that seemed to swallow her whole. She started to sit up, but felt a really strong force pulling her back. All she could do was look around a bit, so she strained and looked to her left. Over in the corner Buffy could just make out a figure walking towards her. She strained as hard as she could to see who it was, but couldn't. Every time she moved, it seems as if some invisible restraints were tightening around her waist, hands and feet. As the shrouded figure moved closer she could her it whisper 'Buffy…Buffy…Buffy…'  
  
"Buffy!" Willow hissed as Buffy jolted awake. She sat up straight only to see Professor Beckett and the rest of her Sophomore English class staring at her. Buffy forced a weak smile – "What was that, Professor?"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Cordelia walked into 'Angel Investigations' and picked up the mornings post. Having glanced through it (and ignored all the bills) she switched on the coffee machine, which promptly started to make odd noises and consequently hissed and stopped working.  
  
"Angel, we have got to get a new coffee machine already!" She said as her boss entered the room from his apartment underneath it, "I can't work without my morning caffeine shot, and the amount you pay me doesn't NEARLY cover the rent, never mind food and drink, I mean…"  
  
Angel stared at her and said nothing. He knew by now it was best to let Cordelia rant for a few minutes and not to interfere. When she'd finished he said  
  
"Cordelia, have you found out any more about that Isis demon?"  
  
"Yeah, but all I could find was that it fed on human waste – big mental yeuch there – and this picture, look"  
  
Angel took the book from Cordelia. On the right hand side of the page was a centuries old sketch of a demon about 4 feet tall. The top half was formed normally (well, for a demon anyway) with arms, hands and a head but the bottom half was blurred and seemed to melt into something of no definite shape. The creature had a huge mouth, but no teeth and small, pointy eyes. Its ears were pointed and it had a mass of black hair all over its head.  
  
"I can see why it would live in drains. My guess is that it sits in the pipes near sewage plants so that it's got lots to feed on. The one that Rosa saw was probably lost. They're not dangerous by the looks of it, but I don't think anyone wants one of those in their bathroom. When Wesley gets here, I'll go back and find it – can you try and find out how to kill it?" Angel said.  
  
" Okay, but it might take a long time without coffee…"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Back in Sunnydale, Buffy was walking with Riley from the cinema not far from Sunnydale campus to Lowell House after their date. Riley was talking about some military programme he had been watching and Buffy had almost completely switched off – she seemed to be doing that a lot with Riley recently. She forced herself to listen and at least seem interested as Riley launched into how a sergeant had risked his life to save some other soldiers. By the time they got back to his dorm, Riley had explained how patriotic the guy was, and how he didn't think many people had the courage to do it.  
  
"I'm sure that you'd have it in you, Riley, really I do but I was thinking that maybe we could talk about something else apart from fighting? It's my night off from slaying and…" She trailed off as she leaned forward to kiss Riley and they fell back onto his bed.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Giles opened the diary of a watcher that had lived around 150 years ago and started reading. He knew that this watcher, Herrid, had done a lot of research into Demonology, and he consulted his diaries often. He flicked through the pages until something caught his eye, entitled 'Body and Mind'. As he read down the section, he read a sentence that chilled him to the bone. "No wonder I hadn't heard of such a demon…" 


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Buffy crept out of bed, careful not to disturb Riley, and got dressed. It was still very early morning as she crossed campus back to Stevenson Hall. She pried open the door to her room and saw Willow still asleep in her bed. Buffy dumped her things by the door and sat down in the chair next to her desk. Suddenly the phone rang. Surprised, as it was only 7 a.m., she picked it up.  
  
"Hello?" Buffy said, apprehensively.  
  
"Buffy, it's Giles. Can you get over here now?"  
  
"Now? Giles, what's up, you sound really weird…"  
  
"I'll tell you when you get here, but come quickly."  
  
"Okay…"  
  
Buffy put down the phone. She turned around, and Willow was yawning, woken by the phone.  
  
"Will, I'm going to Giles, he says somethings come up."  
  
Willow, sensing the worry in Buffy's voice got up, pulled on a pair of track pants and a sweater and hurried Buffy out the door with words of reassurance.  
  
"I'm sure it's nothing, whatever Giles has you can cope with and he's probably just run out of tea or something, you know how he gets…"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Buffy opened Giles' front door to see him huddled over a book. There was another three piles of books around him, and she could tell he'd found something, as he only ever needed quite so many books when it was important.  
  
He looked up from 'Demons: Entopathic and Osmothic' to see Willow and Buffy enter.  
  
"Buffy, I'm rather worried about these dreams you've been having. You say that you seemed someway paralysed, but you were still conscious? There are few spells or potions that can have such an affect. The relationship between the mind and body is extremely strong, Buffy, and anything that can break it is dealing with extremely dark and powerful magics. I haven't found any such creature in all the books I've looked at so far, that's capable of doing such a thing." Giles said, looking decidedly grave.  
  
Buffy stood there taking this in. Willow moved towards one of the books and started to look through it, obviously concerned and trying to help. Buffy, having realised that whatever this thing was, was going to take a lot of fighting, asked Giles;  
  
"Maybe this isn't a prophetic dream, maybe it's just a regular dream, and we don't need to worry. I mean, I dreamt that I met Brad Pitt, but that ain't gonna come true, is it?"  
  
"Buffy, if this is true, then you, and probably many others are in serious danger. Even if this dream isn't prophetic, I can't, and more importantly you can't, afford to take that risk." Giles said, sternly. Buffy knew that there was no point in arguing, and that she knew really that Giles was right. If anything that had the power to immobilise you like Giles said, was on the lose, she didn't want to face it unprepared.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Angel was sitting in the corner of the 'Angel Investigations' office reading a book when it happened. The window suddenly shattered and before he had a chance to get up from the chair he was in and a medium sized demon was lunging towards him. In the split second it attacked him he couldn't make out much of it, but there was a bright white light coming towards him in a straight line. In a reflex reaction, he shielded his face with the book and he felt an immense impact as the beam of light hit it at full strength. As the light grew dimmer as the demon fled, he heard one word 'slayer…' 


	4. Chapter 4

Bye the time Wesley and Cordelia had arrived back from buying coffee, Angel had recovered from the attack, and was studying the book that had been hit by the bright light. It had completely frozen. Solid as a rock. You couldn't unbend the book from the shape it was in and none of the pages could be turned. But it was still the same temperature, and it didn't feel at all different, which was puzzling Angel. But the main thing that worried him was the words uttered by the demon as it left. He had tried to get through to Sunnydale. No one had picked up the phone in Buffy and Willows room, and Giles had been engaged. He was petrified that whatever it was that attacked him was after Buffy, and if it could do that to a book, he didn't know what it could do to a person. He picked up the phone, and dialled Giles again. Still engaged. It was then he decided to go back to Sunnydale in person. He wasn't going to let this thing harm Buffy and he was damned if he was going to stay in LA and let it.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Giles had been on the phone to some of the other watchers and demonologists that he knew for the past 3 hours. He was getting nowhere. No one knew of a demon that possessed such qualities and he had reached a dead end. By now, the whole of the Scooby Gang had been assembled in Giles' house. Anya was in the kitchen moaning that there were no corn flakes left, while Xander was trying to get her to eat something else instead. Willow was with Buffy, trying to comfort her, as she could see that she was a little shaken and Tara was standing quietly beside them. So, when there was a knock on the door, no one knew who it could be. When Giles opened it, there was Angel standing in the doorway, looking extremely worried. Buffy immediately got up.  
  
"Angel? What are you doing here? Surprisingly enough, I thought you were in LA…" Buffy asked, seemingly annoyed at the reappearance of her ex.  
  
"I was attacked by a demon. It tried to hit me with this bright light, it missed, but it whispered 'slayer' as it went – This was no ordinary demon, Buffy, it was dangerous, and I don't want it to hurt you." Angel said, obviously concerned.  
  
Buffy's features softened as she realised why Angel had come. The other two times she'd seen him since she left for LA hadn't been very enjoyable, and it always brought back both horrible memories and strong emotions to the surface – as always, Angel had left her dazed and confused. Giles, his watcher coming through, immediately started interrogating Angel about the demon that had attacked him, and so Buffy sat down, trying to take the days events in.  
  
About half an hour later the doorbell rang again. Tara went to open it, and there was Riley.  
  
"Buffy wasn't in her dorm, I was guessing she might be here…."  
  
He trailed off as he saw Angel sitting on the sofa with Giles.  
  
"What is he doing here?" Riley asked, voice like ice.  
  
"Riley, he's here for news. It's important, and Angel hasn't attacked you this time" Buffy said, pointedly directing the end of the sentence at Angel and Riley.  
  
"Not yet." Angel said.  
  
"Look, I'm serious. This thing is really scaring me, and I don't need my boyfriend and my ex coming over all Jackie Chan to deal with too. There will be no fighting, there will be no name calling, there will be no attempts to get one over on each other, and I mean it." Buffy stated, meaningfully. Riley looked like he'd taken note of this, but Angel didn't look convinced at all. Riley moved over to Buffy and stood next to her, protectively as if marking his territory.  
  
Suddenly Giles jumped up "I've found something! It might not be what we're looking for, but it's a start. If we can identify a demon that might gain enough power to do such a thing, then they often mutate into ones similar to it over hundreds of years. It's a Dragna demon, originates in Holland. It doesn't generally have any power, and lies dormant, but certain cosmic alignments allow it to feed of fungus which gives it enormous strength."  
  
"What planets affect it? I have lots of books that give you the positions of the nine planets in our solar system, and I can find out if this Dragna demon might wake up soon." Willow said, ready to go into investigation mode.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Willow searched the 'Compendium of solar eclipses and cosmic alignments' for over 3 hours before finding the complicated planetary co-ordinates that Giles had given her. But, she had finally found it. The next time it was going to occur was…tonight. And tomorrow…and the day after. She scanned the list of dates. She realised that the alignment was going to be constant for a week as of yesterday, when Angel had been attacked. She immediately grabbed her coat and ran out of the dorm towards Giles' house… 


	5. Chapter 5

"Tonight? We don't have time for that! We don't even know exactly what kind of demon it is, and I need at least a week to prepare for another apocalypse!" Buffy ranted, unbelieving how long she might have to prepare to save the world yet another time. Everyone had left Giles' now, except for Angel who was staying there and Willow who had just returned with the information she'd found.  
  
"It's not a lot of time, no, but we don't have a choice. I suggest we start researching this demon as best we can; its weaknesses, its strengths. It might be a mutation that you encounter Buffy, but at least you'll have an idea of how to fight it." Giles said, immediately trying to organise the group. Willow had a sudden thought.  
  
"I'm going to do a spell. I was studying one of my magic books, and I saw this spell to reveal a potential danger. I need an anchor, but I know that Tara will help and if it works it should help." She said, glad she could help and didn't have to sit around and wait for this thing to appear. She walked over to use Giles' phone, and dialled Tara's room. A few minutes later She put down the phone.  
  
"Were going to do the spell in Tara's dorm, but I don't have all the supplies I'll need – Giles, could you get them for me from the magic shop while Tara and I set up?" Willow asked.  
  
"Of course. I'll go now and bring them straight round." Giles replied, getting his coat on immediately.  
  
Buffy and Angel were the only two left in the house, and they sat in uncomfortable silence for quite a while before Angel said. "So, how've you been?"  
  
"Fine, Fine."  
  
"And school?"  
  
"Fine too. You know, this is silly, I mean we've been so close, and we can hardly have a proper conversation. You know I've missed you…"  
  
"Buffy, don't. You know that I've missed you, miss doesn't come near, but there is no point in starting anything up, or getting involved again, because everytime we do it leads to more pain." Angel said, although it was obvious that keeping his feelings under wraps was the last thing he wanted to do.  
  
"Angel, that's never going to happen. You know as well as I do that friendships out of the question and Riley's wonderful, but he'll never compare to you…I don't love him…" Buffy continued, but was stopped as Angel suddenly bent down and kissed her passionately, as Buffy lifted her head to respond.  
  
"I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry" Angel said, but he still didn't draw away.  
  
"No, shouldn't have done that…" Buffy said, as she leaned in for another kiss.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Having arrived back at Tara's dorm, Willow had immediately looked up the spell she had glanced at in "majicks; black and white". She found the herbs that she would need that were already in her chest of supplies, and mixed some sage with some mother-in-laws tongue root in the pestle and mortar. By the time she had done this, making sure the quantities were exact, Giles had arrived with the other ingredients for the spell. She placed the mixture in the centre of the pentagram she had drawn on a piece of black cloth. After a few preliminary incantations to secure the potion and make it stable during the spell, she and Tara positioned themselves on either side of the cloth and linked hands. They closed their eyes and chanted for a minute or two so they could establish a rhythm, as the spell had to be said by both the witch and her anchor in order to gain full effect. Then, as a connection formed between them, they sensed exactly when to start the spell. "Quod micadem est, quae semper sint deilius reiut, professus malaus igitur flores…" they chanted over and over, the pace quickening as the connection between the witches strengthened. As the Latin verse reached a climax, it suddenly stopped as willow felt herself drift away from the room.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Willow felt calm and serene, but with a sense of mission as she approached the gates of knowledge that she had seen before the last time Buffy had been in serious danger. She travelled towards the gates and the entity that guarded them did nothing but nod as she carried on past him and through them. As she approached the white creature on the other side, she could feel the answers to all of her questions seep into her mind, as if physically. "Goran…life…Slayer…" the pieces of information made themselves apparent one by one. The only thing she wanted to know now was how to kill it, but all that seemed to materialise when she tried to gain this piece of information was solid blackness. She strained to gain it, but the sense of peace evade her, and she slipped out of the gates back to the world she knew. 


	6. Chapter 6

"It's called a Goran Demon, and Giles was right, it's a mutation of the Dragna demon. It feeds off peoples life and attacks its prey with this misty light that sucks the breath out of them, causing the immobilisation that you experienced in your dream," Willow explained "and then takes the brain and heart to add to it. The problem is, that they only have power with this certain planetary alignments, and after this next week that isn't going to happen for another 124 years…"  
  
"And the life of a slayer will keep one lucky Goran going for that long…" Buffy interrupted.  
  
"Yeah, so they're all going to after you.." Willow said, wondering how Buffy would react to the news that a whole demon species were trying to kill her.  
  
"So I'm bait. All that means is we know where they're going to be come tonight." Buffy said. Willow realised that Buffy was going to react by trying to kill anything and everything that was a demon she could possibly kill.  
  
"Where are they hiding?" Giles questioned.  
  
"No simple answer to that. There are so many of them, and they're all pitted against each other, so they're not too friendly. Anywhere that's possible for them to stake Buffy out from, they'll be." Willow said, as the door opened and Riley entered.  
  
"Any news?" He asked.  
  
Willow filled him in on the developments.  
  
"So they're all after Buffy? All of them? There are thousands of them, how is she supposed to defend herself? She might be the slayer, but there's only a certain number of demons she can combat at one time!" He said, obviously distressed.  
  
"No, but I have a plan," Giles said. "As you said, they're all after Buffy, and they're desperate. The only way past her having to fight them all is to pit them against each other, and that shouldn't be too difficult. Tricky, but not that difficult. Willow…"  
  
"Well, I'm working on a spell that will help Buffy become 'as the air' at will."  
  
"You mean invisible" Riley said.  
  
"Well, yeah," Willow said frowning. "But a little more complicated than that. These Gorans are mega-strong, but not that bright. If Buffy gets them after her, and disappears, then they'll attack each other. They'll be extremely confused by it."  
  
Buffy sat there through all this, listening to her nearest friends talk about how they could enable her to bring down all these demons by herself, and she felt her resolve fading. That was what she did. Slay. She enjoyed the thrill, and knowing that she had probably saved someone's life, and she'd been scared before. But not like this. Talk of bringing down 'as many Gorans as possible' suggested that these things were more than she bargained for. They were strong, and they were desperate and they were after her. In the pit of her stomach there was fear. And it was growing.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Angel walked slowly into the mansion. It hadn't changed much since he'd left. A little more dusty, but untouched. He carried on to the other side of the room, by the fire. He glanced at the handcuffs on the wall, and painful memories came flooding back of how he'd had to tie up Buffy, and been chained up himself there. He approached the chest in the corner and pulled out a small, gold key from his pocket. It was intricately designed with a single red jewel at the top. He slid it into the lock of the chest and opened it up, exposing the contents. Inside it was crammed full of weaponry. Angel pulled out an assortment of sharp looking objects until he found a plain box at the bottom, which he picked up. He opened this, and brought out a small tube with a brightly coloured liquid in it. He clasped this in his hand, and without replacing the debris he left on the floor or locking the chest, he swept out of the mansion and out into the night.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Riley had got back to his dorm and lay down on his bed, exhausted. He was worried about Buffy. He wanted to believe that she'd be able to battle this, believe that she was immortal having already cheated death many times before, but in the back of his mind he knew that this was the toughest challenge she had faced, and was likely to ever face again. It wasn't the strength of these creatures that was the threat, because that could be overcome, but the sheer volume of the demons she was going to have to fight. This spontaneous mass transference that Willow had talked about made him feel better, but he wasn't nearly as sure that everything was going to work out well as he normally was…  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Willow was searching through all her spell books, trying to find the spell for mass transference. She sighed as she flicked through yet another book, unsuccessfully. Tara was sitting quietly next to her, not saying a word as she helped with the search. The silence was prolonged, and nothing has been said since the task has started, but Willow was reassured by her presence. They had decided to use Willow and Buffy's dorm to comb the vast amounts of literature in front of them as most of the books had already been there. While flicking through, Tara had noticed something.  
  
"Hey Willow, there's something about the Gorans here. It looks like its all happened before"  
  
The book Tara was pouring over was documents of the work of a monk who had lived around 800 years ago. Willow leaned over, keen to find out what Tara had discovered. She read the text that accompanied a crude drawing of a Goran:  
  
The massacre happened on the 6th day of the ninth month in the year of our lord 134. The Gorans descended like a plague of locusts, a pestilence that killed the members of Regenwald. The darkness aided their cause, and many perished in the disaster. I tried to hide as many as I could, but those left in the street, including women and children, were slaughtered and stood no chance in their plight to survive.  
  
"Darkness? How is Buffy, or anyone, going to be able to fight in those conditions. Invisibility isn't going to help if these Gorans can see without light anyway, is it?" Willow looked at Tara searching for an answer but Tara didn't seem to have any more ideas as to their next step than Willow did. 


	7. Chapter 7

Buffy was walking in Sunnydale Cemetery when she noticed something was odd. It wasn't obvious at first what exactly had happened – she wasn't immediately certain anything had – but the temperature dropped fractionally and there was less light bouncing off the gold writing on the headstones. She glanced at the sky and noticed that there was some kind of slight mist covering the sun. With that, she ran.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Buffy fumbled in her pocket for the keys to her front door, hands shaking. She dropped the keys and quickly retrieved them from between her feet. This time she managed to open the lock and so bolted up the stairs to grab some weapons. She pulled out her bag of assorted instruments of attack and realised she hadn't the foggiest which one was most suitable.  
  
"What the hell," She thought to herself. "I'll just take them all."  
  
With bag in tow, Buffy ran down the stairs and through the door, pelting along the street. She ran with all her strength towards Giles', infinitesimally aware that minute by minute the light was going from the street. After 5 minutes she arrived at Giles' and hammered on the door until Xander came to open it.  
  
"Xander, what's happening? Sunset shouldn't happen until about 8pm at this time of year, why is there no sun?"  
  
"Hey, I'm never the man with the answers to 'what the hell's up with something big and scary" questions, Buff," Xander said. "Better ask Giles' or Willow. Sounds like it's more their department."  
  
Buffy entered the house and saw Willow standing there.  
  
"Darkness. That's what happens when the Gorans all attack. I'm not sure about this, but I have an idea. You see, it being dark is very little use to them. They're so strong that they could overpower a member of the public without even a thought…" Willow trailed off, as she saw Buffy's expression of shock. "BUT, that probably means that light harms them. It's a simple spell for me to create an area of light, called a globe. I've done it before. The only problem is…"  
  
"What? Problems? I don't want problems!" Buffy asked, looking desperate.  
  
"The only problem is that I'm not sure if it can be sustained without my being there. I'm gonna have to come with you."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Buffy was selecting her weapons with the aid of Giles when Riley knocked on the door.  
  
"Buffy, you can't do this," He started. "I know you're the slayer but this is too many demons, too little time. I'm going to have to insist you don't do it."  
  
"Riley, who else is going to try? This is going to mean mass destruction and loss of life and you expect me to decide not to do it because it might cause ME problems? I'm sorry, but I'm not in the mood to play the doting little girlfriend when people are going to die, Riley. I'm not some simple peasant girl off your farm back in Iowa." Buffy said, eyes flashing.  
  
Riley looked shocked at Buffy's outburst. Without a word, he turned round and walked out the door, gently closing it behind him. The whole room fell quiet, waiting for Buffy to speak.  
  
" What? Let's carry on going, we don't have time to waste."  
  
After a further 10 minutes, Willow was ready.  
  
"Okay. I've made the mixture I need to create the globe of light. I need a few minutes of silence so I can concentrate, otherwise it won't last without me doing the quick incantation. Even a few seconds of pitch blackness could be pivotal to the Gorans' campaign." Willow said.  
  
She positioned herself in the centre of the room and scooped up some of the mixture from the bowl. Sprinkling it randomly in front of her she started the chat.  
  
"Gaudeamus Igitur, Juvenes dum Sumus. Post Jucuntum, Jeventutum, Semper sint in Flore."  
  
With that a strong force was felt by all in the room as a ball of light shot outwards from the bowl and grew until the intense patch of light was almost a metre in diameter. The room was immediately lit up so much that everyone around it shielded their eyes until they had adjusted.  
  
"Okay," Willow said. "Now we're ready to go."  
  
"Will, I'm a little worried about you coming with." Buffy said. Willow opened her mouth to speak, but Buffy stopped her. "I know you have to, but that doesn't make it any safer. I'm going to have to fight these things - it's going to take all my strength and attention. I can't protect you when I have to protect myself AND fight. So I need someone who can make sure you're safe."  
  
The silent figure standing in the corner shifted feet.  
  
"I need Angel." 


	8. Chapter 8

After Buffy had ordered strict instructions to the Scoobies that remained not to leave the house under any circumstances, She left Giles' house with Willow and Angel following straight behind her, the globe of light floating just behind them, lighting up the way in what was now pitch blackness. Purposefully striding forward, Buffy knew the only way to keep her cool and not crumble under the stress was to try not to think about the impending distinct possibility of disaster. The three of them walked in silence.  
  
"Where first?" Willow ventured  
  
"I have no idea where they are hiding. I say we just walk around areas where there's space for me to fight, and wait. There's nothing else we can do." Buffy replied, all the time scanning the road to either side with intense concentration. Suddenly, she heard the sound of rustling leaves behind her and she swung round to face the first Goran. To her surprise, she was actually facing two children who looked about nine.  
  
"You have to get inside. Now." Buffy said as insistently as she could. She obviously didn't make the right effect.  
  
"Why? Our mummy said we could play outside if we wanted to" One said. The other stuck out their tongue at her. Buffy walked further towards them, leaving Willow, Angel and the light source a few metres behind.  
  
"Go insi…."  
  
Buffy felt something grab her shoulders and she fell forward, hitting her head on the pavement.  
  
"Willow, stay near the light!" Buffy yelled as she tried to get up. Her head ached and she felt blood trickle down the side of her face. She made it onto her feet and, spotting the Goran, delivered a kick to it's stomach. The Goran stumbled back a couple of paces, but the attack gave little effect. With the few seconds it gave, Buffy pushed the children away from the battle site. Buffy turned and ran back towards the light and the Goran followed her, but as she neared the globe's centre the Goran seemed to slow and lose it's energy. It went no further than a few yards from the centre of the globe. Buffy, who's head was still reeling slightly from the strike on the pavement, landed a back handed punch of the nose of the demon which knocked it over. Angel stepped forward and using the fighting axe he held, landed a swift blow on the demon's neck, severing the head.  
  
"One down." Willow said.  
  
Angel looked out at where the children had been and saw the shape of something. Out of the shadows, a second Goran stepped, ready for attack. But there was a second with it. And a third on another side. The harder he looked, the more demon's he could see, from all directions, twenty maybe thirty surrounding them, all approaching slowly.  
  
"Loads to go." Angel replied.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"How are we supposed to fight all these? The last one was hard enough, and there was only one of them." Buffy said, starting to panic.  
  
Willow was racking her brains, trying to think of a way that lots of the Gorans could be disposed of in one go. She kept on thinking of how the last one had been killed and realised that they were weakened by the intense light of the globe but they had to be pretty near it for it to have an effect. Without someone risking their life and venturing out where so many of these creatures could attack, they wouldn't enter the field of the globe. Even then, it didn't kill them and Buffy would still have to fight more demons than she could handle. She glanced at her watch and then suddenly had an idea.  
  
"Buffy, Angel, I've got it. But we need to get back to Giles' first." She said.  
  
"How are we going to get out of here?" Buffy said, anxiously looking around.  
  
"We fight" replied Angel.  
  
He stepped forward, and Willow moved too, so that the globe followed. The Gorans still moved in on them, and as the group were moving closer, they became more and more exposed to the light. All of a sudden, Angel yelled "Run!" and Willow and Buffy followed him as he sprinted towards a clump of about three demons. Urged on by Angels enthusiasm, the Gorans also speeded up and galloped towards him. But, as with their predecessor, when they hit the near light of the globe, they became obviously pained. Angel swung with the axe at the nearest one, who immediately fell dead on the floor with it's head rolling in the other direction. The second was obviously a stronger demon. Angel swung at the things neck but the Goran fended off the blow with its arm, knocking the axe out of Angel's hands. It lunged forward to knock Angel over but he quickly stepped out of the way so it fell nearer the globe and on it's face. Buffy, who was standing right behind Angel slammed her stake into the chest of the demon which, although not a vampire found it hard to function with 20 centimetres of wood through it's heart. While their attentions were concentrated on this last attack a third Goran was charging at Willow, who had been temporarily left without a guard. Realising that The Goran could probably overpower her even in it's weakened state she had to think quickly. The first spell that came into her head she incanted.  
  
"Vivat academius et quae illam regit"  
  
With that she pointed her finger at the Goran which promptly changed into a rat.  
  
"Why does that always happen? I meant to make it disappear…" Willow muttered as the three of them ran as quickly as they had the energy to back to Giles'. 


	9. Chapter 9

The arrived back within five minutes and banged on the door until Xander opened it.  
  
"It's over? Already?" Xander asked, unbelievingly.  
  
"Not…over, but in action." Buffy said. "We had to change plan. There are too many of them and they're too hard to kill the way we're trying to attack them. Will has another idea."  
  
"Which is?" inquired Giles while lighting some candles.  
  
"I…don't know. Will?" Buffy turned to look at her best friend.  
  
"Right, well I was thinking. It's 9pm now, right? Well, by now the street lamps should be on. I don't know how the Gorans brought the darkness about, but it affected the electricity system in the city. The Gorans' power is severely affected by the light from the globe. I have a feeling that the longer they're in it, the weaker they will get. If I can use the computer, then I can access the City mainframe electricity circuit. I should be able to turn it back on if I can hack into their computer system at the electricity works." Willow said.  
  
"Whatever that means, do it. It sounded like a plan." Buffy replied.  
  
Willow picked up her laptop from the corner of the room and fumbled in her bag for the emergency power pack. After a few minutes she had located the site for the Sunnydale electricity board and set about hacking into their computers. Shortly she had reached a page which seemed very complicated to all standing there but Willow.  
  
"Right, this is the screen that the street lamps all get turned on from. I don't know from a combat point of view where you want to be Buffy. You got any ideas?" Willow asked.  
  
"Well, there's a hell of a lot of them out there. They haven't followed us because of the candle light inside, but there's probably a huge crowd of them sine I'm their meal ticket for the next 124 years. I don't think that it's safe to go out until they're at least weakened. It's probably for the best if we have a vantage point of the window to view what's going on when the lights come on." Buffy said.  
  
So, The whole gang, minus Willow who stayed with the computer, went up to look out of Giles' upstairs window.  
  
"Okay, I'm going to switch them all on now….5…..4….3….2….1….go"  
  
With that the whole gang waited for the effects. Suddenly, Angel noticed a tiny light coming on in the distance, and then more and more. The little beads of light were getting larger and nearer to the hoard of demons outside the house. The demons took no notice but the floods of the were backing all the way onto the street and many were underneath the lamps.  
  
Giles squinted at the lights as they came nearer and nearer the house.  
  
"They're very bright…brighter than normal, Willow." He said.  
  
"I know. I sorta turned them up…" She replied  
  
"How much?" Giles said, taking off his glasses worriedly.  
  
"As much as I could. If it wasn't strong enough then it wouldn't have the right effect." Willow replied, sure of her decisions.  
  
By now the lights were reaching up to Giles house and the Gorans standing about 200 yards from the house were flooded with light. Trying to run out of the brightness that enveloped them dismay and panic ensued with the Gorans struggling to escape from the throng of demons. Most of them couldn't get out and started attacking their neighbours, frenziedly trying to regain their strength and escape the light. A full scale battle was being launched as the demons broke necks, stabbed chests and cracked skulls with nearby stones. After only 5 minutes, almost all the Gorans had either been killed by another demon or were so weakened by the light that they couldn't even get up from the pavement.  
  
"I feel cheated. That was a little too easy, don't you think?" Buffy said, but the relief in her voice was hard to ignore.  
  
"You said these things were stupid?" Willow asked, from downstairs. "Well, it looks like they're intelligent enough to know that the less light, the less pain…." She trailed off as a group of 10 or so Gorans broke down the door to the house.  
  
"They must have been away from the light in the doorway" Angel yelled, above the noise that the creatures were emitting. Buffy leaped down the stairs after the leading Goran that had been the first to enter. Within a few seconds, Buffy realised which direction it was headed towards.  
  
"Willow!"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Buffy charged at the Goran which had now already reached Willow. The candle light had little effect on the demon which appeared to be at full strength. Because of this, unlike the last time she had been attacked, she did not have time to cast a spell and the creature pounced on her, knocking her off her chair. As if in slow motion, her hand automatically flew out to the side to steady herself and hit a vase on Giles' desk that smashed, shards hitting her on the cheek as she fell. The force with which she hit the floor was so great that her head slammed onto the floor and snapped back up again. The Goran reached out to her forehead and placed its three middle fingers just above her eyebrows. By now, Buffy had reached her friend and, grabbing a paperweight off the desk, hit him heard over the head. The Goran was startled and immediately turned from Willow to defend itself against a second strike from Buffy. The demon swung at Buffy, but she dodged the assault and gave a high kick to the creatures stomach followed by a punch between it's eyes. The creature seemed slightly stunned and she took the advantage to attempt to flip the Goran over onto its back. Reaching out for it's arm she brought it over he shoulder and turned round to put her weight on it. By now the demon had recovered its wits and pulled it's other arm around her neck, suffocating her with the severity of its grip. Buffy tried to pull the Goran over her shoulder but it was stronger than she was. Suddenly the hold round her neck loosened and she fell backwards as the Goran did. She turned her head to the side as she fell and saw a bow stuck in the Goran's gut. Within seconds she had got herself up and saw Angel at the top of the stairs where the window was, still aiming the crossbow. The other two demons that had entered had suffered the same fate. Exhausted, Buffy fell to the floor to check on her unconscious friend. 


	10. Chapter 10

"She'll be okay" Giles said, putting away his first aid kit. "Luckily I don't think anything is broken, although that cut on her cheek is pretty bad. I think it's probably better to let her rest though, she had a pretty hard hit on the head." He closed the door to the bedroom he'd left Willow in to sleep.  
  
"So they're all gone? No more Mr. Soul-Digesting guy?" Xander asked.  
  
"Yeah. They're all dead. Will was right, long enough in the bright light weakened them so much they couldn't survive for long. It's just a good job that it didn't take any longer than 10 minutes." She looked out the window. "You know, it's quite impressive we managed to short circuit the whole town. It's definitely been one of the most disruptive things we've ever done, don't you think?"  
  
Outside the house the streets were pitch black. No street lamp or house light could be seen. Only the soft glow of the candles in the living room provided the Scooby Gang with light to see. Buffy left the window and went to sit down on the sofa. Slumping down she let out a sigh that symbolised all the tension that had built up since all this had started. She closed her eyes and was almost falling asleep when she felt someone sit down next to her. Blinking her eyes open she turned her head to see who it was.  
  
"Angel. Thanks for coming to Sunnydale. Without you I'm not sure we would have got through this without any causalities worse than Willow's or even fatalities – possibly even mine." Buffy said a look of complete appreciation on her face.  
  
"I ought to get back to L.A. Buffy. Cordelia and Wesley wont know were I am and there's cases I have to deal with." Angel said, not able to look at Buffy while he said it.  
  
"You could call them Angel – you're just looking for an excuse. I want you to stay longer and I think you want to stay as well and I'm sick of having to say goodbye again every time I see you. After all we've been through can't you take a day or two off work for me? Cant you?"  
  
Buffy looked imploringly into Angels eyes, hoping that if she caught his gaze she would make him understand what she was feeling, the intensity of her emotions. Angel looked up from his hands at her and when she was sure he was about to admit she was right she…yawned. A huge grin spread across Angels face. Seeing him laugh, Buffy wasn't able to keep a straight face and started to laugh herself.  
  
"Look, I know that our relationship is anything but simple. But I can't bear to leave you again. I love you, and that's all I care about." Buffy said, but the intense expression was gone and what remained was a smile.  
  
"I love you too, Buffy. You know that. And I want to stay, I never wanted to leave. But I have a life in L.A. now too, and I can leave that behind. You can't leave Sunnydale either. But, I don't want to leave you either – not permanently. We'll work it out." Angel said. He put his arm around Buffy and she leaned in, resting her head against his shoulder. Xander and Giles had gone to assess the damages outside and Buffy and Angel were now alone in Giles' lounge. Buffy felt a wave of total relief wash over her and a sereneness she hadn't felt for more than a year. She lifted her head up and Angel bent down to meet it with a kiss. After relaxing into the moment, Buffy leaned forward to the candles set out on the coffee table and blew lightly at them, the flames flickering and then dying out.  
  
"There are one or two things good about the dark…" She said, resuming her previous position.  
  
THE END 


End file.
